THEATER REVIEW: 'Annie' has a lot of spunk

Friday

May 12, 2017 at 9:00 AM

By David Brooks Andrews, Daily News Correspondent

BOSTON - The real live little redhead in "Annie the Musical" doesn't much resemble the comic strip character of a girl with round eyes, no eyeballs and a dog we see on a huge screen as we enter the Wang Theater.

Annie (Angelina Carballo or Amanda Swickle at select performances) lives out an urban fairy tale with recognizable bits of reality and huge masses of dreamland, but she naturally loves everyone in a rather adult way. And that is her trick to overcoming her own struggles and gliding magically through life.

On opening night of the national tour's stop at Boston's Wang Theater, there were all kinds of people in the audience. There were parents with lots of little girls there who were perhaps dreaming they were on stage performing as Annie or one of the girls who wears the shabby clothes of an orphan. There were some small boys. And there were adults with other adults. It was a magical evening that everyone seemed to enjoy no matter what their age or who they were with.

The show is deftly choreographed by Liza Gennaro and given overall life by director Martin Charnin. The book was written by Thomas Meehan, the music by Charles Strouse and the lyrics by Martin Charnin. The original production on Broadway appeared in 1977 and won seven Tony Awards, including for best musical, and the show played for nearly six years. Two young sisters from Franklin, Amanda and Katie Wylie, play two of the orphans.

Annie has lost her parents, and the little girls living in the orphanage with her wake up in the middle of the night, fight and shout, alone and together. The young actresses seem to have a lot of fun doing it all and they create a real presence. They sing with power, although they have naturally high voices and it can be a little hard at times to make out the words. One of them asks the dreaded Miss Hannigan (Erin Fish), who runs the orphanage, what she is doing as she has another swig of liquor and she says she is merely taking her "medicine." Bit the girls are onto her, and one of them imitates her in a very funny way.

Fish plays Miss Hannigan with real talent. She moves, dances beautifully and has a large and dramatic style. She gets the young girls to often say, “I love you, Miss Hannigan,” though they really don’t love her. She needs someone to say those words to her! And she often shows up at the right moment to squelch whatever’s going on. She is like many desperate men and women who suffered from the Depression when she says, “Why all those kids want to be orphans, I’ll never know.” How little she does know. She is just the opposite of the calm, loving, upbeat Annie, who handles every moment with great ease and masters the stage in a way that totally wins us over and makes us cheer.

When Annie briefly escapes the orphanage, a policeman sees her with a dog that looks like a stray, and when he asks its name, she comes up with “Sandy,” at the very last moment. The play seems to give its first real test when he says, “Let's see him answer to his name when you call him.” For a moment, your heart is caught up in your mouth as you’re not sure what is going to happen. But Annie sings the ever-hopeful song “Tomorrow” to Sandy.

When Annie tells the down-and-out people who live together that it is not she who is lost, but her parents and she just can’t find them, you know that somehow she is not going to be defeated.

The play takes a real turn from the dingy world of the orphanage to something very beautiful when the lovely Grace Farrell (Casey Prins), the secretary of the very rich Oliver "Daddy" Warbucks, shows up at the orphanage to select a child to come to Mr. Warbucks' mansion for a two-week Christmas visit. In a very clever scene, she chooses Annie to come with her.

Many things happen that are pleasing, amusing and clever. Annie wears a beautiful two-layered coat for the first time and we see her in a real tennis outfit. Oliver Warbucks (Gilgamesh Taggett) calls some very important people and makes some interesting turns to accepting the orphan Annie. He is natural easy, funny, and seems to be a man who could easily have a billion dollars.

Annie naturally suggests inviting the whole large staff to the Roxie movie theater. At one point, the energetic staff wears beautiful long green period coats and the women period black and white dresses with caps as they walk through the beautifully photographed city of New York. Annie meets President Franklin D. Roosevelt (Jeffrey B. Duncan), a charming, delightful character. And Rooster (Michael Santora) and Lilly (Mallory King) are two interesting characters with very good moves.

Oliver Warbucks sings with a strong, baritone voice and learns some important lessons from Annie, but in a charming moment he has to explain to her, “Annie, a Duesenberg is a car and Babe Ruth is right field for the Yankees.”

The play is winning, delightful and it can even be surprising right up to the ending. Every child needs to see it at least once and every adult, too.

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